Naming the Salt River

Posted By Bob Mason on Jun 1, 2022

By Bob Mason

Salt River below Saguaro Lake. Photo by Les Conklin

The stream we now call the Salt River has had many names since Coronado’s men crossed its headwaters in 1540. They called it “Rio de las Balsas” or, The River of the Rafts. On various other Spanish maps it has been called the Rio de las Asuncion, Azul, Prieto, Compuesto, Salado and Salinas.

In 1826, the Pattie brothers trapped in the Mesa area and called it the Black River and Kit Carson, three years later, called it the Salt. The name, Salinas or Salt obviously refers to a presumed salinity of the water.

Research by the University of Arizona caused them to publish a statement in 1969 that the Papago/Pima Indians referred to this river as the “Onk Akimel.” The word, “onk” means “salty” and “akimel” means “river.”

Further research shows that in 1877 writer Hiram Hodge refers to the origin of the name. Hodge describes the mountain called “Four Peaks” and then says, “Further up the Salt River is an extensive salt formation through which the Salt River flows. It is some one hundred miles or more above Phoenix. The salt is so extensive that the whole volume of water in the river is impregnated with it, rendering it so salty a stranger can barely drink of it….” The deposit is one mile below the bridge where Highway 60 now crosses the Salt River north of Globe.

Early Mormon settlers in Lehi and Mesa took advantage of this formation to build sixteen vats that were 50 feet square on-site to store the salty water for evaporation. About 18 inches of water was needed to fill each vat. King Woolsey organized the company that developed and managed this salt mining enterprise. The “Salt River Herald” newspaper said on September 21, 1878 that “…the quality of the product is equal to the finest table salt and that the capacity was between 2000 and 3000 pounds per day.” Household needs for table salt for the entire population of Arizona Territory at that time would have been less that the amount quoted as being produced at this location. Thus, some of the production must have supplied the mining industry. In absence of any further references to this evaporative salt venture, it is presumed that it did not exist for a long period of time.

In spite of Hiram Hodge’s comment in 1877, most writers of early Arizona history failed to detect any salty taste to the water, certainly not below the mouth of the Verde River. In fact, most references to the river’s water quality were glowing.

Even with this logical basis for naming the river, the name, “Salt River Valley,” was not popular with some business leaders. The Chamber of Commerce circulated a ballot to test the feelings of citizens on changing the name. It was felt by many that including the word ‘salt’ in the name “Salt River Valley”

connoted dryness, bitterness and unpleasantness. They felt this was not the right word to attract tourists to the valley. The terms, “Happy Valley,” “Valley of the Sun,” “Sunny Green Spot of the West,” “Palm Valley” and “Valley of the Palms” were suggested. None seemed to generate enough favor to change the then-common reference to the Salt River Valley.